On Monday Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah held a speech which to a large part explained the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation and why it can be seen as a success. (Nasrallah is currently the public spokesperson for the various Resistance groups involved in the current fight):
Sayyed Nasrallah maintained that the Palestinian resistance wanted Al-Aqsa Flood Operation to be a chance to revitalize the Palestinian cause and remind the whole world with the Palestine and Palestinian rights thrown in the oblivion.
On the other hand, some Arab regimes promoted ‘Israel’ as a normal entity that preserves democracy, according to Hezbollah leader, who added that the steadfastness of women, children and resistance fighters in Gaza has changed this situation.
Nowadays, Palestinian and the Palestinian rights are being highlighted all over the world, Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding that over 140 states voted for granting Palestine a full UN membership.
Sayyed Nasrallah affirmed that the Israeli envoy’s act of shredding a copy of UN Charter over a vote in favor of Palestinian rights displays the Zionist arrogance and carelessness about the international resolutions.
The most important political media scene that reflects the victory of the Palestinian resistance is the moment the Israeli UN envoy raised the picture of Hamas military commander Yahya Al-Sinwar.
Another expression of the success is the fact that Israel has achieved not even one of its war aims:
Sayyed Nasrallah mentioned that the Israelis tell the Zionist officials that three main targets of the war–eradicating Hamas, liberating the captives, and protecting the settlements from Gaza missiles– have not been achieved yet.
Hezbollah leader said that Hamas continues fighting the Zionist occupation forces across Gaza, holding most of the Israeli captives, and firing missiles at the Zionist settlements in the south of occupied Palestine.
Sayyed Nasrallah added that the Israelis also failed to achieve the implicit targets, including displacing Gaza locals, noting that the Gazans showed a great steadfastness against this scheme.
Alaistair Crooke described the Resistance strategy as designed to exhaust Israel:
Seyed Hassan Nasrallah (as the spokesman for the unity of Resistance Fronts) has made clear that the aim of the Resistance is to exhaust "Israel" — and to drive it to a state of defeat and despair — such that Israelis begin to recant the claim of special rights and exceptionalism, and become content to live ‘between the River and the Sea’ with others (Palestinians), sharing in a parity of rights. That is, with Jews, Muslims and Christians living on a common territory. There would then be no Zionism.
Seyed Nasrallah explicitly foresaw the possibility of such an outcome emerging — without major war.
I do not yet see such a situation evolving. Israel has instead descended into barbarism.
But current headlines of the Times of Israel do reflect the heavy strain Israel is under:
- 5 soldiers killed, 7 hurt in ‘friendly fire’ incident in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya
- IDF confirms Hezbollah drone hit a sensitive military site; damage being assessed
- Hezbollah fires dozens of rockets, claims to target army bases; IDF strikes Lebanon
- Gallant to PM: Reject Israeli military, civil rule of Gaza after Hamas; I won’t allow it
Defense Minister Gallant is as right-wing as Israel's Prime Minister Natanyahoo but a bit more realistic. The Biden administration is currently trying to install him as the Prime Minister of a less radical Israel government.
The required marketing campaign for this is run through David Ignatius' Washington Post column (archived):
It’s time for Israel to begin building a Palestinian security force in Gaza that can provide stability there after the political power of Hamas is broken, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a blunt briefing this week.
“The idea is simple,” Gallant told me. “We will not allow Hamas to control Gaza. We don’t want Israel to control it, either. What is the solution? Local Palestinian actors backed by international actors.” Gallant’s frank comments mark a turn in the Israeli government’s debate about governance and security issues in Gaza, known by the shorthand phrase “the day after.” His views are widely shared by the defense and security establishment but opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition.
…
Biden administration officials say Gallant has taken a larger role in U.S.-Israeli dialogue in recent months, as relations have soured between Netanyahu and President Biden. One U.S. official described Gallant as an “indispensable” problem-solver in the increasingly tense debate about how to end the war in Gaza.
…
In January, Gallant released a public plan that stated his central point: “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against Israel.” He proposed a multinational task force to help stabilize Gaza including U.S., European and Arab partners, with Egypt playing a special role as a “major actor.”
The idea is stupid.
Some heavily bribed remands of the Palestinian Authority selected by Israel and guarded by foreign occupation forces will never be able to rule Gaza.
As Amal Saad, a British-Lebanese scholar of all things related to the Resistance, concludes:
Hamas has not only weathered the storm of Israel's scorched earth policy but has emerged more resilient and adaptive in the face of this approach. Rather than breaking its resolve, Israel's overkill strategy has unwittingly fostered a more robust and determined adversary, and allowed it to rally support in Palestine and beyond.
Given these realities on the ground, Israel's misguided belief that it can handpick Gaza's future government borders on delusion. Far from weakening Hamas' grip on power, the war has paradoxically served to solidify the movement's status as the only legitimate and effective governing force in Gaza.
This does not bode well for the Zionist settler state:
This rare phenomenon, where one of the world's best-equipped militaries has its weaknesses laid bare for its enemies to exploit, has not only sealed Israel's fate in the current conflict but predetermined its failure in future wars. The acknowledgment of its military shortcomings, diminished morale among its troops and the growing confidence of its emboldened foes, all point to an inevitable outcome: a series of future defeats that will further erode Israel's once-formidable military reputation, strategic position in the region and even its survival.
I do not know enough of the internal dynamics of the Resistance to judge on this but that experts see a chance of such an outcome gives me some hope.